The Boy With No Smile

After two years of Zoom calls and several postponed visits due to the pandemic, Global Care’s Head of Operations, Steve Wicking, finally made it to Uganda. Here’s a snapshot of his trip.

“It was wonderful to be in Rukungiri at last!  I was immediately taken with the dramatic hills and lush green vegetation which contrasted starkly with the burnt orange of the dirt tracks and bumpy roads.  Everywhere I looked there was life; banana trees, brightly coloured birds, lizards and insects. There was even a frog, making its home in my hotel bathroom!  However, I knew that for all its beauty, this remote region close to the borders with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, was home to some of the poorest children Global Care supports.

On the Friday morning we visited four partner schools.  We must have been introduced to a dozen different classes and waved to hundreds of smiling children who seemed genuinely happy to see us.

However, amongst all the smiles and waves, there was one small boy who stood out for all the wrong reasons. He didn’t smile once. His eyes seemed filled with sadness, his uniform was dirty and he looked like the world was resting on his tiny shoulders. The Global Care team told him to tell his mother that we would visit him at home the next day.

Late the next morning we parked our minibus at a crossroads and began the long walk down a narrow path to his small mud-plastered house. There we found this little boy crouching diligently over a small cooking pot, boiling up some scraps of pumpkin and plantain, wrapped in banana leaves, as his little sister stood nearby, watching hungrily.  A short conversation revealed that his mother had gone out early in the morning and left them to their own devices.

Neighbours soon gathered to tell us that the mother was alcohol dependent and it was normal for her to go out early in the morning and not return until very late at night, leaving the children home alone, to fend for themselves.  Aside from the cooking pot, a mattress and some clothes, half trodden into the mud, the house was bare.  The mother had sold everything else they owned to fund her addiction.

As the team were discussing our next course of action, the mother arrived, carrying a tiny, malnourished baby on her back in a sling.  While the neighbours berated her angrily, Penlope and I took her aside, recognising that she was in just as much need of help as her neglected children.

The Global Care staff sprang into action. By the end of the next day the police and probation office had been informed, Global Care staff had taken the family to the hospital for a check-up, the mother had been given nutritional supplements and Moses arranged for fresh milk to be delivered to the children every morning. By the Monday morning, a child protection meeting had been held with the police and probation office, the local authority and health workers from the hospital.  The mother agreed to a child protection plan, including two visits by a health worker every week.

Since returning to the UK, safeguarding reports from the team confirm that the mother is complying with the conditions set out in the plan and the situation is improving, albeit slowly.  It was encouraging to see how Global Care’s local team dealt with the situation so professionally, in line with our safeguarding policy and procedures.  Our team was the catalyst for action, mobilising local agencies and working directly with the mother to address her harmful behaviours.

Global Care’s strap line is ‘for vulnerable children’. We do what we say on the tin!

I have seen with my own eyes how the team in Rukungiri went that extra mile to support the neediest, most at risk children. They refused to give up until an appropriate intervention was found and the children were protected.  Thank you, Moses and Penlope, for your continued dedication and determination on behalf of Global Care and the children and families we support!”